


Entanglement

by Cinderella1181



Series: Kingsley's Companions [1]
Category: Australian Actor RPF, Real Person Fiction
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-22
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-05-15 11:48:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5784217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cinderella1181/pseuds/Cinderella1181
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jai Courtney was hired to the security detail of the daughter, of one of the most important business men in all of Dublin he was expecting an easy job following the twenty year old university student around. What he didn’t expect was Aoife MacTaggert being the most pig headed, spoiled, beautiful twenty year old he had even seen. When things start to go wrong and attempts get made on her life, will Jai be able to keep his personal feelings at bay while protecting the girl who is, quite simply, driving him mad?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jai knew that, in theory, getting shot was supposed to hurt. There was supposed to be blinding pain and then, he wasn’t exactly sure what. He hadn’t really expected it to feel like fire exploding in his side, sucking the air from his lung. 

The world really did stand completely still in those seconds. Split second that were faster than the blink of an eye, but he swore, he could count every heart beat from when Seamus had leveled the gun at Aoife, taking aim at her heart. He could hear the hollow sound of his own voice as he yelled and moved himself in front of her, as the shot rang out. He could feel the force of the hit, and the explosion of fire. 

And now, as he lay here in the dirt, the life slowly fading from him, all he could think about was her, and the look in her eyes as she held on to him. The color of his blood as it stained her top, and soaked in, the edges of it already drying and turning brown. He could feel her hot tears and he knew, he had to keep trying to hold on for her, to keep breathing. But this was what they didn’t tell you, that the more time passed, the less it hurt and the more that it just began to feel numb and cold. 

“You can’t go anywhere, you can’t. You have to stay here with me, help is coming, I swear it is, I’ve called, my love. Please, please don’t leave me, I need you, who will protect me if you go?” She said in between her tears, as she kissed his lips. 

“I’m not going anywhere,” He said quietly. He smiled. “And stop crying, you know I can barely understand you when you speak normally, Sunshine, I definitely can’t understand you when your crying.”

She said something in pure Irish tones that he knew he was supposed to take as an insult. “And it is any better when you really get going Aussie?” She let her fingers trace his beard and chin. “Why are you trying to make me laugh and smile now?”

“Because, your smile is what keeps me going.” He said simply. 

She let out a chocked sob, bending over him and kissing him. “I love you, you can’t leave me.”

“I’m not planning on it,” He said quietly. He was desperately trying to keep holding on for her, but he wasn’t sure how much longer he could. “I am trying for you Aoife.” He closed his eyes. “I’m trying...” He said as his voice trailed off. “I am trying…”  
***

Four Months Earlier

“Mr. MacTaggert will see you now,” The pretty auburn hair woman sitting at the desk said as she set the phone back down in the cradle. “Just through that door.” She pointed to the end of the small hallway. 

Jai stood, buttoning the button on his blazer and pulling the cuffs down. As he approached the door two men appeared from recesses on either side. “Well, this is unexpected. Okay, it’s not…and my god, where did he find you two?” He said. Each of them had fists the size of hams. He held his hands out and let himself be patted down by. Only then was he ushered in to the plush office of one, Cian MacTaggert. 

He looked up from the papers on his desk, his blue eyes filled with wisdom, and something else Jai couldn’t quite put his finger on. “Mr. Courtney, it’s so nice of you to join me this afternoon.” 

“Thank you for reaching out to me, I have to be honest, I was a little shocked to get the call from my employer,” He replied, sitting in the chair that MacTaggert indicated on the other side of his desk. He latched his fingers together. “There aren’t many people who look for my, exact set of skills.”

“Well, I am a man who has many fingers in many different pies,” The man across from him said. There was something in the lilt of his Irish accent that set Jai’s nerves ill at ease. “A man in my line of work can never be too careful with his most precious jewel.”

“I don’t mean to sound, ill-informed Mr. MacTaggert, but just what will I be protecting?” He asked. “All I was given before heading to the airport in Sydney was an address to your very posh building, and an appointment time. That was it. And honestly, I will protect anything, but…”

“Cian, please, and I am sorry you were given so little information, that was my fault I am afraid,” Cian replied. “You’ll excuse me…”

“Jai,” he replied. 

“You’ll have to excuse me Jai, I am a man of many secrets. Let me start this by saying, that your reputation as being one of the best bodyguards in the business precedes you. I have a daughter, she just turned twenty, and her name is Aoife. She is the absolute joy of my life, and the jewel in my crown. Her mother was my true love. Sadly my wife passed away a year ago.” 

“I am sorry,” Jai said. “My condolences.”

Cian nodded his head, standing and moving over to the window. He looked out and was quiet for a moment. “Bridgid was the love of my life, and Aoife reminds me so much of her. They have the same laugh, and smile. And freckles... God, they even have the same freckles.” He grew quiet. Jai sat there in silence while the other man simply watched out the window, an intruder into his grief. He moved a little in his seat, the moments of discomfort weighing on his heart. Finally the man looked at him. “I’m sorry, where was I?”

“You were telling me about Aoife.” Jai said. 

“Oh yes, she is in university here in Dublin.” He smiled. “She wants to be a doctor. I don’t think she has the constitution to do it, but, we will see. She is too kind. But, I will pay for whatever she wants to do. I also have a son. Cillian, he is 36, and he works in the business.” 

Jai raised an eyebrow at the large age gap. “And he doesn’t need any security?”

“He has his own,” Cian said. He smiled a little at the look on Jai’s face. “I know you’re doing the maths in your head. Cillian was born when I was 19, his mother was a girl I knew in university. I love him dearly, but, what do they say about daddy’s little girls?” He shrugged. 

“And she needs me just now because?” He asked. 

“Until a month ago, she had been living with very minimum security, but then, the head of my security was in an accident in a vehicle that she was meant to be driving at the time. When we had the car inspected, it had been tampered with, so we now have upped her detail.” Cian said. “The part I can’t figure out Jai is, who would be trying to hurt her. She has nothing to do with my business.”

“They are trying to get to you through her,” He said. 

He nodded. “That is what we are thinking.” Cian replied. “There are two other men on her detail. Seamus, who has been there since she was eighteen, and Fergus, who has recovered from the accident and is hopping mad. He has known her since the day she was born. He was the second person to hold her. They are completely loyal to her. More importantly they are loyal to me, and in my line of work that is even more important.”

Jai nodded. “I would like to get started then, right away if that is okay?” 

The man across the desk nodded at him. “It would be wonderful. I will have Billy take you to drop your bags off, and then I will alert Fergus…”

“I didn’t travel with any bags, I have a couple of boxes coming once I get settled. Once I am done with my initial sweep I will stop and pick up some things. I just need to make contact with Aoife today, and I am sure Fergus has me on her tomorrow or the next day,” Jai said. 

Cian looked at him, slightly taken aback. “You are as ruthless as people say you are, aren’t you?”

Jai shrugged his shoulders. “I am good at my job, nothing will happen to her. I promise you that, and if someone does try something, I can promise you, they won’t live to make it past the door.” 

The other man simply nodded at him. “I am glad to be working with you.”

“Likewise,” Jai smiled and stood. 

He walked out the door, and by the time he reached the end of the little hall, there was a man there. He could only assume that was Billy. He said nothing to Jai as they walked silently to the elevator and got in. Jai knew he had to call in back to the main office, but he wanted to get things established before he did. He needed to meet the girl, and the rest of the team. 

He had learned long ago that it was best in his line of work not to ask what sort of business dealings people had, but in this case, he may need to find out exactly what it was that he was dealing with. If someone was trying to kill a twenty year old girl, then there had to be some kind of nefarious and illegal nature to it. A straight business man didn’t have armed guards just outside of his office. A man who dealt in arms, drugs or both did. Jai had a feeling that when he called in and gave their tech analyst something to look at, he would be able to give him more information than Cian MacTaggert was ever going to give him. 

The man Billy looked at him as they reached the ground floor and indicated that he should follow him into the large, spacious, very modern lobby. Coming towards him was a tall, red haired man with bright blue eyes. He smiled at him and held his hand out. “You must be Jai Courtney. I just got off the phone with Cian, I am so glad that you have come to help with the little princess. I am Fergus Doyle, head of security.”

Jai took the other man’s hand, shaking it. There was something about this man that he instantly liked, but that he would kill you in an instant if you crossed him. “I am Jai, it is nice to meet you Mr. Doyle.”

“Oh, god, please call me Fergus. We are a very informal group around here,” He said and smiled. He looked over to the man at Jai’s left and nodded a little to him. “That’s all Billy, I have it from here.”

Billy continued to say nothing and turned, walking back towards the elevators. “Really chatty that one is.”

Fergus chuckled. “He is hired as muscle, not to be verbose I’m afraid.” He shook his head. “He does a good job for me and Cian likes him. So I keep him on. It all works out in the end. As long as the MacTaggerts are safe, that is really all that matters, I couldn’t care less if someone chose not to speak.”

Jai nodded, setting off after Fergus as he began to walk across the lobby. “You have been with MacTaggert a long time then?”

Fergus nodded, stopping in front of a small key pad on the opposite wall of the very posh space. He punched a few numbers in, and a door that was flush with the wall swung open. The older man opened it the rest of the way, standing aside while he let Jai in. He shut the door behind him, and finally answered Jai. “I have known Cian since we were young. I have always been his second and his brawn. Frankly, I always will be.” He motioned to a chair in the office they had now entered. “He and I are as close as two men who aren’t actually brothers can be.”

Jai nodded taking his words in. “So, then you agree that, whoever caused the accident is trying to get to him thought Aoife?” 

“Completely,” Fergus said. “I would die for that child, Cillian to if he wasn’t such a right prick any more, I love them both really like they were my own. But, they are most certainly trying to get to Cian through her. They know he’s not fully done mourning Bridgid and they think if they can get him off his game with hurting Aoife, then they can take the crown as they say. But if they think that, they really don’t know Cian MacTaggert. All that would do would make him, that much more angry.” 

Jai nodded, he was beginning to get the idea that Cian’s business was less than on the up and up. “I would like to meet her before I get to wherever it is that I am staying, I need to see exactly what I am working with.”

Fergus mad a noise. “I can tell you what you are working with, a pig headed stubborn spoiled little girl who is still mourning the loss of her mother. Aoife is a good girl. She really is, but she can be a handful.”

“You speak so highly of a child you would lay your life down for,” He laughed. 

“I adore her, but I have told Cian for years he indulges her, too much,” Fergus shook his head. “I will take you over to meet her, her last class is just ending.”

“Wonderful,” Jai replied. 

“Just be prepared,” Fergus said. “She is a lot to handle.”

***

Aoife stood on the steps of the university, and looked out into the drizzle. She knew Seamus was somewhere near. She knew she had a tail, Fergus couldn’t hide that from her anymore not since the accident. She knew it was just better to just stay in one place until the taller man came to stand next to her to walk her back to her apartment. 

Like clockwork, the tall figure came and stood next to her. He was dressed casually for security, but she knew that he was lethal. “Maybe you should enroll with me? I know Da would pay for it if I asked him,” She said smiling up at the man next to her. 

Seamus looked down at her and let one side of his mouth go up in a sort of half smile. “I already have a degree.”

“There is so much about you I don’t know,” She said starting the walk across campus. 

“And you will continue to not know. There is no reason for you to know anything more,” He said quietly, ending the conversation. 

Aoife frowned a little, walking on in the stiff silence that always came with him. It wasn’t bad, it was just simply, silent. She remembered the day that her father had hired him. She had developed a crush on him, but that had quickly changed, once she got to know him. His personality did not match his handsome face. 

She walked the short distance to the apartment that shad recently taken residence in, since it was within walking distance of the university. She saw Fergus’ car pull up, and the tall, older man step out. She was surprised when she saw him joined by another man on the passenger side of the car. They both stood at the back and waited for Seamus and her to make their approach. 

She was glad to see at least one person was happy to see her, Fergus’ eyes lit up and he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her in close to him. “Aoife, this is Jai Courtney. He will be joining your security detail along with Seamus and me.”

She frowned. “Do I really need another?”

“We are not going to have this argument now lass.” Fergus said. In a lot of ways he was more like her father then her actual father was. “Your da and I talked it over. It’s happening, end of story.”

She pulled a face and nodded. “Fine, but I am not happy about it.”

“Don’t care if you are. Nothing is going to happen to you,” Fergus replied. 

She rolled her eyes, throwing her hands up. “Come on up Jai to my own personal hell.” She said as she opened the door to the building. 

She didn’t remember exactly what happened, but she remembered someone shouting get down and the sheer force of a warm wall being thrown on her. 

Then there was noise. Deafening, her ears rang, and her whole brain felt rattled. She knew she was safe, but, she knew things were defiantly much different. She looked up and saw green eyes looking down at her just before she slipped away into unconsciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

Aoife felt like she was in a cave, one that was completely hollow, she thought to herself as she woke up. She could hear the sounds around her. People talking, things being shuffled about, but it all sounded far away and distant. She moaned, touching her head.

Her father’s face was there over hers, smiling down at her. His blue eyes filled with worry. He pushed her hair away from her eyes. “Just rest precious. Everything will be okay.”

“Da, hurts,” She said quietly.

He nodded and kissed her forehead. “I know, mo leanbh, I know.”

He stood, returning to the group of men who stood in a tight circle at the end of her bed. She could see they were all in heated conversation, but should couldn’t really hear what it was about. This feeling of being deaf was frightening. Aoife didn’t enjoy it at all. 

Fergus looked over at her, and as he turned his head she could see the large white bandage on his fore head. This was now twice that he had been injured while taking care of her. She cast her eyes down, feeling suddenly sheepish. She looked at the new addition to her team, the man who had thrown himself on her. He wore a sling across his chest, his arm clearly injured. He was speaking heatedly to her father and Fergus. 

And her brother. 

She frowned a little. What on earth was Cillian doing there? He never seemed to care much about her, but now he suddenly did? She watched in shock as he came over to the bed and caressed her hair, his face so similar to her fathers but so different all at the same time. He sat on the edge of the bed, taking her hand in his. “Can you hear me Aoife?”

“Yes,” she said quietly.

“Good, I want you to know, I am going to work hard to find out who did this to you. No one can try to blow up my deirfiúr beag and not pay for it. “He brushed a little bit of her hair from her face. “I have my best men looking for the culprit already.”

She nodded, a tear slipped from the corner of her eye. “Thank you deartháir mór, I am scared.”

Cillian wiped the tear away from her cheek. He smiled a little at her. “No one will hurt you, Da and I will make sure of it. You are too loved, too precious to let anything happen to you.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

“You’re more than welcome,” he said as he stood up and kissed her forehead. “Rest now. Everything will be taken care of.”

She nodded, half smiling at him. But nothing about any of this felt right. Nothing. Some one was seriously trying to hurt her and had now succeeded in hurting Fergus twice. Not to mention that they had also managed to hurt the new fellow, what was his name, James, no, Jaime…not that wasn’t it either. She furrowed her brows a little more, finally it came to her. Jai that was it. She wondered what had happened to Seamus. 

She looked over at him, catching his eye. He smiled sadly at her, but there was no outward appearance of anything wrong with him. But, how could that be? 

Before she could get anyone’s attention to ask a question of why he was so intact, he stopped a nurse and whispered to her. The nurse smiled a little, disappearing a moment, the returning. She came over to her and injected something in to her IV line. She felt the warmth of the medicine as he swirled with in her veins. Before she could say or do anything else the world was fuzzy and dark. And once more Aoife was back under water.

~*~

“Speak,” The warm tones answered on the third ring.

“I’ve been blown up,” Jai said, his voice gruff. “I need some things run from your end.”

There was complete silence on the line for several beats before the voice on the other end burst in to a peel of laughter filled with just utter and pure joy. “Oh my god, please tell me that you see the irony in the fact that you, the demolition expert. Mr. Australia’s next top ANZAC Superhero was blown up.” 

“You know I am only in Dublin, it is only an hour or so flight. I can come and kick your ass,” Jai huffed into the phone.

“You can also come and report in to Kingsley. I am sure he would be more the happy to see his Australian top operative, it’s been a while Crocodile Dundee.”

Jai made a noise. “We can talk about that later. Are you going to help me?”

“Of course I am, and then I am going to send out a company memo,” He replied. 

“Nick, if you do that, I will blow you up, only there won’t be enough of you for anyone to find.” Jai said. His voice was even, quiet. Deadly.

There was silence again on the other end of the line. “So, what was it that you needed?” 

Jai smiled knowing that he had won the battle, and possibly even the war when it came to this. He pulled out the piece of the cap that he had found. “I found a small piece of a cap, the bomb was crude, hastily put together, but well-hidden small. I managed to save the girl that it was intended for, but I found a partial piece of a cap. I need you to see if you can run the numbers on it.”

“You saved the girl?” Nick asked. 

“Yes.” Jai replied. 

“Why do you and Hiddleston, Cumberbatch and Edgerton always save the girl and somehow Armitage always saves the boy? Why can I never save the girl? Why can it never be the dashingly handsome tech-ops geek?” He mumbled. 

Jai grinned he could hear the clicking of keys as he worked, his way through programs. “Because you sit in a hole? Maybe, just maybe it’s because you really are wanting to save the boy.”

“I happen to have a very lovely window filled state of the art office, thank you very much!” He replied. “And trust me, it’s the girl I want to save, I leave the saving of the boys up to Armitage.” He sighed. “Alright, give me the numbers.”

Jai grinned. “HK-45-L, and then nothing, but I am sure there were at least two two or three more numbers after that. See what you can find, I know you’re good at finding the needle in the hay stack Nick.” 

“Yeah, Yeah I will call you when I get something, talk to you soon boomer.” He replied and hung the phone up. 

Jai walked back to where the doctors were as they were wanting to check him again, amazed that he wasn’t more injured. He knew he was going to feel the stiffness that came with being blown up tomorrow, but this wasn’t the first time that this had happened to him. He was actually getting quite used to it, if that could be believed. 

No, he just wanted to be left alone a little, alone to watch as things unfolded before him. Something about all of this didn’t sit right with him, he wasn’t sure what it was, but deep down something in his gut told him something wasn’t right. He reached up and touched the small button on his hearing aid, but there was still nothing in the one that had been closest to the door. The explosion had fried it. He would need to remember to have Nick send him over a new one. The other one seemed to be working okay now, but, he was going to have to rely on the lip reading for now. 

He stood where he could see everyone and watched. He looked over at Fergus, the bruise under his eye was growing darker by the moment and the cut was making the bandage color red. He turned his attention to Seamus. He was standing near a nurse, and whispering to her, that Aoife needed more pain meds, she was beginning to get antsy. 

Jai’s eyes looked over at the girl in the bed, just past the door way where they all stood. She didn’t seem antsy to him, but he noticed that she was also eyeing Seamus with a wary eye. He looked at him once more, and noticed that out of the four of them that had been there when the bomb exploded, he was the only one of them without any sort of injuries. He peaked one of his eyebrows, but said nothing. He turned his attention to Cian who had touched his arm pulling him back in to the conversation. 

“What is your opinion?” Cian asked him, Jai could sense the well tamped ire in his voice. 

Seamus rejoined the small knot of men, and Jai caught his eye for a split second before beginning to speak. “Whomever did this was not much better than an amateur, he wanted to leave pieces of the bomb, and he did.” There was little in Seamus’ reaction that caused Jai to suspect him, but there was something about him that just didn’t set right. He continued on with his explanation. “The charge that he left wouldn’t have killed her, if that is what he was looking to do, maimed her, yes, blew off her hand, maybe an arm, but not killed her outright. She would have likely bled to death but not been killed by the explosives that were placed there.”

“Then why was it such a big explosion?” The auburn haired man asked. 

Jai looked at him, he had a similar nose to both Cian and Aoife so this must be Cillian. “Aoife knocked the bomb a little, which, gave me enough time to see it. Aoife was not about to let anyone stop her from going into the house, so, she wasn’t about to let Fergus, Seamus or I clear the area before she went in like gangbusters. She just happened to jostle it. It was just sitting there, lying in wait for her.” 

Jai looked at the man who was questioning him. He could see a lot of his father in him, the angle of his noise, the shape of his eyes. He suspected that both Cillian and Aoife’s coloring came from Cian, but you’d not be able to tell from his steel grey hair. He looked at him and spoke on, “It seems to me that whomever planted the bomb Cillian, wanted to maim her, possibly blow off an arm, but what they didn’t realize was that they weren’t using the right kind of C-4 in the right amounts, in the right places. They would have just likely blown off her hand. Her knocking it caused it to rebound in to the building and blow a chunk of the building off. That’s what’s hit Fergus and I. Most of our injuries are concussion injuries from the explosion, and debris fall out.”

Cillian clenched up a little and looked at his father. “I still think the men that we have are enough to protect her. We don’t need outsiders.” 

“Cillian, it is done and he will be staying on. He saved your sister.” Cian said. 

Cillian looked at his father for a second, frowning a little. “Fine, but if something happens to her, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He turned, walking down the hall, his guard following him. 

Cian looked at Jai. “Did you find anything?”

“The fragment of the bomb that I found had some coding on it. The thing that most people who make bombs don’t realize is that there is always a money trail. Even if you pay in cash, things are traceable. Do you have any connections in the police department? Is there any way that I can get my hands on the material collected to send over to my tech lab. Not that I don’t think the Dublin police will do a fine job, but I think my guy is, well, better.”

Cian laughed a little. “You’re blunt aren’t you? I will see what I can do.”

“Thank you.” Jai replied. 

“What are you going to do now?” Seamus asked, finally speaking, looking at him with curious eyes. 

“I am going to find out who is trying to kill an innocent girl and I am going to stop them.” Jai replied. He looked at the dark haired man, with his pristine beard and still clean clothes. “And I am going to need all of your help.”

Seamus nodded. “Anything for her.” 

“Good.” He replied. “Because I may have to kill the man who did this in the end.”


	3. Chapter 3

Aoife looked around the room that she had been given and frowned. She wasn’t quite sure why this was necessary, and she certainly didn’t like the fact that she was sharing the room with the new guy. When she had tried to protest, she was summarily shut down, and simply told that she would be doing what the men in her life thought was best for her. 

That was the part of all of this that she hated. The being told what to do. She was, and really always had been, very much her own person. She liked it that way. But now, she was being prohibited from her regular activities by both injury and her father’s fear and love. She knew he tried to keep what he did from her but she knew. She knew that he was the king of the criminal element in the whole of Dublin, really in the whole of the British Isles. Cian MacTaggert thought that he was able to keep that from his child, but she knew. 

She settled back in the pillows, smoothing the covers over her while trying to get settled. She still had one more day that she had to stay in bed. She felt fine, but she knew if she even tried to do anything that was deemed too much, she would earn herself more days in bed. And she knew she wanted to get out of this bed as quickly as she could. 

She watched as her newest jailer came into the room and walked towards the closet. “You will not be sharing the bed with me, I will have you know.” Jai didn’t even respond to her. He went over taking off his jacket, placing it over the back of the chair, and turning his back to her, undoing the sleeves and collar of his shirt. Aoife huffed and crossed her arms across her chest. “Did you not hear me? I said you are not going to be sharing a bed with me!”

But there was still no movement from the man standing a few feet away from her, other than the movement to continue undressing. She threw her hands her up in exasperation. “Hello! I am speaking to you! If you are going to just ignore me I am going to tell me Da! He won’t like it, and he will send you back to whatever barbaric hole that you come from you Australian brute!” She took the pillow that was next to her and tossed it at him with all the might that she could muster. It hit him in the back of the head. 

He turned, looking at her, his eyebrow raised. His hand went up and touched his ear. “Yes?”

“I told you, that you are NOT sharing the bed with me, did you not hear me?”

“No.” He said simply. “I only have one hearing aide, the blast killed the other one, and I lost my extra batteries. So until I can get replacements from the home office, I am on conserve mode. I should have them in the morning.” 

Aoife sat back in the pillow. Her mouth formed a perfect ‘O’ shape. “You’re deaf?”

“I prefer hearing impaired, but yes. With my hearing aids, I hear perfectly fine, without them, I don’t hear much more then sounds, if anything at all. With them I hear normally.” He said and sat on the edge of the bed. His shirt open. Aoife tried to keep her eyes on his face, but it was hard. His chest was an expanse of muscle and darker blond hair. She wanted to touch it. She chewed her lip and looked back up at his face. “Our tech guru has made them quite ingenious really.”

“Were you born…hearing impaired?” She asked, feeling horrible about it. 

“No, I was a perfectly normal lad in Sydney growing up. Joined the army. Loved blowing things up, they let me do it in the army. I was in charge of munitions in Iraq, there was an accident. I saved two mates, but I was blown clear nearly 9 meters. Hit my head, woke up in the hospital three weeks later like I was underwater.” He said quietly. He shrugged a little, taking the small device from his ear and holding it out. “I shattered my jaw, and damaged the insides of both ears from the concussion. The army wouldn’t let me stay in with the aids. I didn’t know what to do with my self after I was discharged.”

Aoife pulled her knees up to her chest as much as she could. “So you started to work for Kingsley?”

“No, I actually did a job for a competing company. But Kingsley liked my style. The bomb was so clean, well… that you don’t need to know about.” He said coming to sit down on the edge of the bed. He looked at her, smiling a little. “He made me a better offer, allowed me to stay at home in Sydney close to my family, I have a mum and sister there, and I took over running the office there.”

She looked at him and nodded a little. “And you’re happy doing that?”

“I am, every once in a while I get to do what I love, which is blow something up, but for the most part I am used on a consultancy basis.” He smiled, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s not exactly how I expected to spend my life, but, it works.”

Aoife looked at him, for a long moment. “You can hear what?”

“I am close enough to you now that I can hear you well enough to know what you are saying, but I back it up by reading your lips. Which makes for a great skill when spying.” He replied. “But if I sat in the chair,” he pointed to the chair, not even three feet away from where he was sitting. “I could barely hear you, I’d hear mostly just sounds, not distinct words, and I would most certainly be reading your lips.” 

She nodded, resting her chin on her knees. “I don’t have to shout or anything at you?”

“No, I’d prefer if you didn’t.” He frowned a little. “Really Aoife, once, I have them back, as long as we don’t get blown up again, you won’t even know that I have them in. You really don’t even see them. They are so small. Don’t think about them. Nick said he would have them to me first thing in the morning. He always has a couple of spare sets lying around in case of an accident such as this.” He stood back up. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to finish getting ready for bed. I have had a very long day, and I now have to figure out who is trying to blow us up.”

He moved back to the wardrobe, with little hesitation, and began to undress yet again. Aoife knew that saying anything was going to be pointless, so she simply watched him as he undressed. He took off the dress shirt that he was wearing, setting it on the chair that stood near the closet. Aoife could just make out the faint lines of scarring that crossed his back. She wanted to ask him, where he had gotten those, but something sunk deep in the pit of her stomach. She would wait, and ask later. Maybe, or maybe she would just never know. She tucked her knees closer in to her chest. 

She let a gasp out, when his pants fell to the floor. She had seen men in various states of undress her entire life. Aoife had never seen a man, so large, or well built as nude as he was. He was standing there, his back to her, wearing not a single stitch of clothing.

Aoife crossed herself and tried to look away. _Blessed mother_ , she thought to herself, _guide me through this trying night._

The look on her face must have been something close to complete scandal when he turned towards her. He stood there, rather proudly with his hands on his hips. “Like what you see?”

Aoife’s mouth worked, but no sound came out. Nothing came out, not even air. She was certain she was going to pass out soon. Finally, she managed to spit out, “You’re nude.”

“Keen observation. I am glad I have you on my side, helping me look for the culprits.” He said with an air of sarcasm. He began to walk towards the bed, making no attempt at all to cover himself.

Aoife felt the heat rise in her cheeks. “Wh…what do you think you’re doing? You need to put on some sort of pants!” She pointed to him, more specifically towards the muscle between his leg, that was, thankfully, uninterested in the goings on at the moment.

Jai laughed a little. “I never sleep in any sort of clothing, first off, and secondly, Evie, I’ll sleep on top of the covers, you sleep underneath and your virginal integrity will remain intact.” He put his hands together in front of himself, as if in prayer, and sending his eyes towards the heavens.

Aoife huffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “I am not a virgin.”

Jai raised an eyebrow. “Really?” He crawled over the bed right to her, so he was just an inch or two away from her face. “Then you must like girls, because I’ve never had a sheila turn me down.”

Her eyebrows knit in fury. She pushed him away from her. “I happen to like men very much. I just don’t like hired men who think they can just, push their way in to my bed. I have had men try that before and they always end up, well, they end up reassigned. And I will have you know that if anyone found out that you were in here nude with me, well, my da would be very, very angry with you.” Her hand felt like it was on fire after it came in contact with his skin. 

Jai smirked and lay on the bed next to her, exposing his nudeness at great lengths to her, “Well, this is how this is going to go, I need to keep you close, and you father wants us in the same room. My room. Since that means we are going to be sharing a room and a bed for the foreseeable future, then I guess, I will have to take my chances with anyone finding out about my predilection of sleeping in the nude.” He rolled so he was facing away from her and flicked off the light. 

Aoife made a sound, several in fact. But she knew they were, quite literally falling on deaf ears. She harrumphed, settling down in the bed and pulling the covers up as tightly as she could to her neck. Part of her knew this was a terrible idea, this was like lying in bed with a hungry lion. But she couldn’t help the fact that her body was already wildly fighting against her mind. 

This was going to end badly, she just knew it.


End file.
